Tightrope
by CzarnaBastet
Summary: One shot. Something about friendship and war. After graduate Finn & Puck enlist to the army.  Let see how it ends  Rated M for language.


"Hudson, do you realise that these are our last moments at this end of the world?" Puckerman flung himself on the bunk next to Finn, not even bothering with taking off his shoes.

"Yes, I do realise," Finn mumbled, putting Rachel's picture to the drawer. "I'm sick of it, you know?"

"Oh, don't even go there," Puck groaned, covering his face with a pillow. "You were supposed to become a man here, not a whiny little girl!"

"Oh, fuck off." Finn threw his shoe at Puck and fell on the bed.

They joined the army together, just because. Actually, it was Puck's idea, Finn joined him. Training was a nightmare. However for Hudson, the worst was to tell his mother what he was going to do. After the week full of tears, yells, sobs and pleas to not to do that, she finally accepted his choice. No, she wasn't happy, but she accepted it. And Rachel? She hadn't spoken to him for eight days. When she finally showed at his doorstep, she slapped him and told him that if he was going to even think about getting hurt, she'd kill him.

Puck's mother took it surprisingly well.

Two weeks later, once they were sitting in the barracks, sharing their room with twelve other guys, they started to see being in army as a completely different experience. Every day they had to wake up at five in the morning, running until they were almost passing out, puking with the blood from pain, hunger and exhaustion. Bruises covering their whole bodies from exercises. But they went through this together, even if they were crying like babies for half of the time.

"Can you imagine? No more sand in your ass…"

"Puckerman!" laughed Finn, but he knew exactly what his best friends was feeling.

Mission in Afghanistan was tiring to them. Half of the year on the desert it's not something they would like to repeat someday. Just like the fact that nor Rachel or Carole, or Puck's mother didn't want to hear about them flying on that mission and they made an intervention, preaching to them about what they were thinking. Of course it didn't help.

"We'll go back to the life… To showers and toasts… And chicks," Puckerman's muffled, dreamy voice was coming from under the pillow. Finn didn't even have a strength to stop his laugh. "I mean, I'm going back to chicks, you're going back to Berry. Well, I kind of won."

"Puckerman!"

"Don't be sensitive, Finessa…" Puck put his pillow aside and looked at Finn seriously. "But imagine…" he waved his hands in front of his face. "You won't have to use your hand anymore…"

"Puckerman, shut up before I'll punch you."

"You won't move," said the boy between his attacks of laughter. "It's too hot."

It was a truth, there was too hot to do anything. Wearing only wife beaters and trousers didn't help. Sometimes when they didn't do anything all day, they felt more tired than after a training.

"When we'll get back home," Finn looked at his friend mischievously "I'm going to beat you up. Then me and Rachel won't leave the bedroom for-"

"That's disgusting! I don't wanna hear it!" Puck flung himself on the pillows, covering his ears.

But the truth was simple. They bounded more during this one year than those few years in high school. Well, whisling bullets over your head, flying grenades and armored cars are the things that usually bring people together, no matter if you want it or not.

Puck just felt the sweet sense of sleep surrounding him, when he heard sirens howling and yells from the hallway.

"Get up! Everyone should gather in five minutes in front of the building!"

Confused, he sat violently on his bed and looked at Finn, who looked exactly like Puck has felt.

"I can't fucking believe this…" Hudson slammed his fist on the bed. "Not today…"

"Quit moaning and put on the shoes," snarled Puck, buttoning up his uniform.

The last week of this damn mission, in this shitty country where even beer tasted like piss, where women are either fully covered or ugly as hell, where tea is stronger than vodka and NOW they wanted them to do the patrol. Sons of a bitch.

He supressed his anger and tightened the strap of his helmet. He looked at his friend. They bumped their fists and left without saying a word.

They were sitting in the truck, silently. They knew exactly what the other one felt. It was a one, big joke.

They were riding through the village, where they knew probably every person. The children were running behind them yelling, waving and stretching their arms for candies, which they usually brought for them.

"Salid, tell them that not today," yelled Puckerman to the man who was sitting on the crate. He was the translator. "Tell them to go home!"

They heard man's yells adressed to the kids and after a while everything was more quiet.

"Why the fuck did they send us here?" Finn jerked the steering wheel, overtake the guy riding on the donkey. "I mean…"

"Corporal Hudson! You need to do what you were said. Without comments!" They heard a voice from the trailer and fell into uncomfortable silence.

Their ensign staff sergeant had this weird ailment, where he always opened his mouth when no one really wanted to listen to him.

The truck in front of them slowed down. Finn put his elbow on the frame of the window and wipped his forehead with his hand. They felt the raising tension. No one liked the situations when they didn't know what was going on. They heard the sound of deprotecting weapon in the back. Puck corrected the holster on his waist and rested the rifle on his lap. Finn took out his M9 and put it on the dashboard.

"Something is wrong…"

They look at each other, understanding written all over their faces.

"I promised."

"I promised," replied Finn and raised his fist to pump it with Puck.

They promised their mothers they would be protecting each other. They had been doing this for the whole last year. At the beginning they were watching each other backs on the training, then they protected each other in Afghanistan.

They have heard quiet murmurs at the back of the truck, where ten soldiers were jumping out of the vehicle. Hudson and Puckerman waited, unmoving, for the develop of the situation. The car in front of them started to move slowly, so Finn, not thinking too much, started to follow it. It didn't even took 10 feet when they have felt the ground shaking.

When Puck opened his eyes, he knew there was something wrong. He was still sitting in the car, but he didn't hear anything. He saw the people running around, he saw the pieces of parget flying everywhere, but he wasn't able to localize any sound. And suddenly, without any warning, every sound blown in his head, making him scream from pain. He looked at the left. Finn's head was lying on the steering wheel and his body was hanging uselessly on the seat. He felt sick. He looked through the window and the realisation hit him. They ran into the fucking mine. He gathered what was left from his strenght, jerking his legs out from the pieces of dashboard, wipping the blood pouring to his eyes. He jumped out of the car and pulled his rifle from the remains of what few minutes ago was the window. He circled the truck and quickly opened the door which looked like the sad scraps of metal right now. He heard the bullets flying above his head, but he didn't care.

"Hudson!" He shook his friend. "Hudson, fuck, talk to me!" He shook him harder. "Hudson!" Puck felt boy's muscles tensing under his touch and he sighed with relief. "Stop playing, you idiot! I need to get you out of there!"

"Le… leave me…" He heard Finn's weak voice. "H-hide… I…"

"Oh, shut up!" The blood was still pouring out of his cut brow, but he wipped it with his sleeve and still fought with the steering wheel. "Move back!"

"No…"

"I promised! Do you hear me, you idiot? I pomised! And the last thing I want to deal with right now is your pissed mother! And Berry!"

When he finally unblocked Finn's body from the car and tried to pull him out, he frozen. He felt like he was going to vomit.

"What's going on?" Finn must have felt something was wrong.

"Nothing… Just my head is spinning," he lied, trying to avoid looking at his friend's legs. From the waist down, Hudson's body looked like big, bloody piece of meat.

Puck turned around and threw up everything he ate two hours ago. He had to do everything to keep Finn from looking down. He was dragging him on the road to the closest gate he saw, praying silently not to get shot.

"I'm going to get you out of here…"

"I know," Finn smiled sheepishly. "How bad is it?"

"Good… it's good." He layed Finn on the ground and unhooked his helmet. "Look at me. You can't close your eyes, do you understand?"

"Yea… I kn…" He coughed and the little bloody bubble appeared on his lips, immediately changing into red foam. "Do you know I wanted to propose to her?"

"I know, but, fuck… stop scaring me!" Puck felt panic raising inside of his chest.

"Will you tell her that?"

"Finnessa, shut the fuck up!" He yelled, feeling the hot liquid falling down his face. It wasn't blood. "Shut up, shut up!"

"Calm down… It's going to be okay…" His voice was so weak, that Puck barely heard him through the screams coming from the street. Everything seemed so unreal.

"If you fucking die1 here, Hudson! Put yourself together!"

"Puck, it was a bomb… you know that…" He spluttered another batch of bloody foam. "…that I have no chance… my legs… can't feel… I…"

"Carole will kill me… Oh, the hell with her… Berry will fucking castrate me because of you!"

"Tell her… tell her that I love her, okay?" Finn's body started getting a little limb.

Finn was looking at him, but Puck knew, he won't hear anything else. His friend's eyes were deprived the playful spark and interest. They were still and they stared at Puck with unfulfilled promise.

It was hot and everything stank like blood, dust and broken promise. Finn's head was heavy on his lap like a fucking pang of conscience.


End file.
